iliaceous roots
and bulbs of the Tertiary lakes and rivers. There also are the massive
heads and spreading horn-cores of the _Bos primigenius_, and the large
bones and broad plank-like horns of the great Irish elk. And there too,
in the same apartment, but leaning against its further wall,--last, as
most recent, of all the objects of wonder in that great gallery,--is the
famous human skeleton of Guadaloupe, standing out in bold relief from
its slab of gray limestone. It occurs in the series, just as the series
closes, a little beyond the mastodon and the mammoths; and, in its
strange character as a fossil man, attracts the attention scarce less
powerfully than the great Palaeozoic plants, the great Secondary
reptiles, or the great Tertiary mammals.

[Illustration: Fig. 93.

SKULL OF DINOTHERIUM GIGANTEUM.

(_Miocene._)]

I last passed through this wondrous gallery at the time when the
attraction of the Great Exhibition had filled London with curious
visitors from all parts of the empire; and a group of intelligent
mechanics, fresh from some manufacturing town of the midland counties,
were sauntering on through its chambers immediately before me. They
stood amazed beneath the dragons of the Oolite and Lias; and, with more
than the admiration and wonder of the disciples of old when
contemplating the huge stones of the Temple, they turned to say, in
almost the old words, "Lo! master, what manner of great beasts are
these?" "These are," I replied, "the sea monsters and creeping things of
the second great period of organic existence." The reply seemed
satisfactory, and we passed on together to the terminal apartments of
the range appropriated to the Tertiary organisms. And there, before the
enormous mammals, the mechanics again stood in wonder, and turned to
inquire. Anticipating the query, I said, "And these are the huge beasts
of the earth, and the cattle of the third great period of organic
existence; and yonder, in the same apartment, you see, but at its
further end, is the famous fossil man of Guadaloupe, locked up by the
petrifactive agencies in a slab of limestone." The mechanics again
seemed satisfied. And, of course, had I encountered them in the first
chamber of the suite, and had they questioned me respecting the
organisms with which _it_ is occupied, I would have told them that they
were the remains of the herbs and trees of the _first_ great period of
organic existence. But in the chamber of the mammals we